10 Jun Key Insights from the Snapchat Annual Partner Summit
A few weeks ago, Snapchat held its third annual Partner Summit through a webinar, announcing exciting developments within the platform regarding AR, eCommerce, and other ways businesses can grow their brand. The platform also offered the latest insights on app performance and usage:
- People open Snapchat on average 30 times per day.
- There are 280 million+ daily active users globally.
- The app has 500 million+ monthly active users.
- Nearly 1 in every 2 smartphone users is on Snapchat.
- People are creating 5 billion+ Snaps daily.
When looking at social media users’ app usage among the platforms, Snapchat holds up well amongst heavy hitters such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with 45% of those on the app using Snapchat several times a day compared to 49%, 38%, and 30% for the others respectively.
According to a Pew Report, “there are certain sites or apps, most notably Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, that have an especially strong following among young adults. In fact, a majority of 18- to 29-year-olds say they use Instagram (71%) or Snapchat (65%), while roughly half say the same for TikTok.”
With these insights and the ability to target an active audience (the app has seen a 30% increase YoY in engagement with Snapchatters over age 35), many brands are diversifying their channel mix with Snapchat.
New AR-Enabled Spectacles
Snapchat took this opportunity to introduce the new generation of Spectacles – their “first pair of glasses that bring augmented reality to life.” The glasses include dual 3D waveguide displays, making “immersive Lens experiences feel like they’re naturally overlaid on the world in front of you.”
Spectacles are fully integrated with Lens Studio – users can connect them to their phone and use them for up to 30 minutes at a time.
Users can activate scan, play games, see the world through suggested relevant lenses, Snap a scene and send it to friends, etc. For now, these new generation Spectacles have only been offered to a select number of Creators as Snapchat continues to enhance its performance and abilities.
How Can This Help My Brand?
The race to bring AR mainstream continues as platforms like Facebook and Snapchat see the potential for bridging the online/offline worlds together. We anticipate that Snapchat will continue to integrate AR into real-world experiences, but that mainstream adoption of Spectacles still may take time.
AR Try-On Experience
The Summit announced that more than 200 million Snapchatters engage with AR every day. Snapchatters tried products on more than 250 million times and were more than 2x as likely to purchase than average.
In addition to the AR functionality of Spectacles, Snapchat is adding to the AR innovation for shopping with new AR try-on experiences. These include the ability for users to ask for items that they are looking to browse and digitally try on through voice command and a new swiping gesture option.
Now, users can ask the camera, “Can you show me a windbreaker jacket?” to see what the product will look like on and then ask for another item if it’s not the perfect piece. As of now, there are over 40 voice commands in the Studio.
The platform also announced new Dynamic Shopping Lenses, which will allow brands to add stock in real time so shoppers will never get the “out-of-stock blues” and will be able to purchase directly within the app from the AR tool.
Screenshop is now a part of Scan as well, giving users a “personal shopper right within their camera”. Users can scan an outfit on a friend or an outfit from a Memory to get recommendations on similar outfits. Users will also be able to scan food, such as an avocado, and then receive options for recipes.
How Can This Help My Brand?
As people are looking for ways to make the shopping experience easier and bring the in-store experience to their homes, businesses will have to continue to evolve how they reach consumers. AR try-ons are leading to improved results, and this technology is set to grow in the coming years with over 100 million consumers shopping with AR currently and almost 75% of the world population expected to be frequent AR users by 2025. Brands such as Gucci and American Eagle have already capitalized on Snapchat’s AR try-on features, reaching nearly 19 million users and initiating $2 million in incremental sales respectively. If interested, businesses can get started by checking out Shoppable Lens Campaigns available through the app.
Public Business Profiles
Businesses will now be able to have public profiles on the platform where they can showcase their lenses, highlights, and stories. Snapchatters will also be able to browse, try on, and buy through the Shop feature.
AR Shopping Analytics will provide businesses insights into lens performance and how Snapchatters are using their virtual shopping experience, enabling brands to learn what items, colors, etc. users are most interested in on the app.
Snapchat describes Public Profiles as a way to “connect with your customers organically by highlighting useful and engaging content, showcase existing Lens AR Experiences, and share shoppable products directly within the Snapchat app – all while delivering insights for your business. Snapchatters can also subscribe to your Profile to stay up-to-date with your content, new product launches, and more.”
How Can This Help My Brand?
Public Brand Profiles officially launched for all businesses on May 20th, and brands can get started by creating a free business account and setting up their official public profile. Following suit of other platforms, these profiles allow businesses to have an organic presence on Snapchat and become immediately discoverable through Search, @ mentions, Discover, Lens Explorer, and Snapchat Ads. Now, followers can more easily discover and engage with brands and the content they have to offer on their own time. As we expect to see more brands on the app, it is worth a business’s consideration if an official profile aligns with its social strategy and objectives.
Snap Map
Over 250 million Snapchatters use the Map monthly. You can see what your friends are up to and what is happening in real time with Snaps shared throughout the community. The platform has started adding businesses, stores, and universities into the Map – with 30 million+ businesses now currently on the Map, and many utilizing it as a way to further engage and interact with Snapchatters.
Now, they are working on adding AR to the Map as well with a new feature called Layers. Layers is “a way to find specialized experiences from select partners and Snap right on top of [the] Map, specialized just for you.” For example, the Infatuation Layer allows you to search for restaurants nearby while the Ticketmaster Layer allows you to see what concerts are coming up, leading to the Ticketmaster Mini where you can buy the actual tickets.
How Can This Help My Brand?
Listings on the map can help facilitate in-store traffic, online ordering, and other interactions with businesses. Note: for now, only businesses with a location presently on Snap Map will appear as Snapchatters use the feature. While Snapchat will not be currently adding businesses to its database, more locations will be added as they continue to expand the Map.
Summary
During the Summit, Snapchat discussed other updates and announcements including updates to Spotlight, Story Studio, Gifts, and Lens Analytics. These updates will allow for more easily created, edited, and analyzed insightful content (such as ways to better upload content from desktop) as well as additional ways to monetize the platform for creators. With these, along with the developments mentioned above, Snapchat remains a social media platform to keep watch on and consider for your social strategy. It is an exciting time for digital innovation.
For the full playback of the summit, see here.
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